As most of you know, Penzee passed away in mid-February. This tribute cache is placed at Hoag at the request of her Hoag family. She was a beloved employee in the Microbiology Lab and worked there for 47 years. Her entire adult life was spent working there and her Hoag family was a very important part of her life. Thank you to them for taking time to help me find a suitable location for this cache.
Penzee and I met at an event many years ago. We just happened to sit at the same table. After the event, she messaged me and asked me if I wanted to go caching sometime. We became good friends and became regular caching partners for almost 11 years.
We had so much fun together. We went caching every weekend unless she had to work. We regularly attended local events and went on many geocaching adventures like many years to Yuma, several Geocoinfests, ET Highway and other events.
Usually when we cached, she was the brains and I was the brawn. When we arrived at a cache location, I would immediately take off straight to gz, never bothering to look for a trail or a path. Several minutes later I would hear her yell, "I found a trail!" We would always laugh because it was too late for me - I was already scratched, bleeding or recovering from a fall.
She mispronounced words regularly. I would correct her for the first thousand times and then would give up. However she had a vast vocabulary of "colorful" words that she purposely mispronounced. These words would always be closely related to profane words and we never grew tired of using them. Those words are permanently part of my and cacheflyer's working vocabulary now.
When cacheflyer started caching with us, it became a much more productive time. He is an outstanding navigator, cache finder and multi-tasker and he would keep us on track. Our numbers were soaring and we were having the best time when he joined us. We enjoyed his company so much and he always enjoyed our goofiness. The three of us became regular caching buddies and we had so much fun together. I know cacheflyer misses her very much, as do I. She ended up with 6330 finds and 35 hides.
So here's to you, Penzee! Your Hoag family will never forget you and they miss you so much! I feel exactly the same way.
Please feel free to post any pics you may have of Penny. Then we can have a large collection of photos in her memory.
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANY OF THE DECORATIONS. THEY BELONGED TO PENZEE AND REPRESENTED THINGS SHE LOVED. THEY ARE PART OF THE CACHE.